Uchu kara no messeji (1978)

Director:

Kinji Fukasaku

Writers:

Kinji Fukasaku (story)
Shotaro Ishinomori (story)

Release Date:

30 October 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | War

Tagline:

Where Fantasies are Real & Reality is Fantastic.

Plot:

In this Star Wars take-off, the peaceful planet of Jillucia has been nearly wiped out by the Gavanas...

Plot Keywords:

Manga | Space Opera

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Sonny Chiba	...	Hans
Jerry Ito
Vic Morrow	...	General Garuda
Philip Casnoff	...	Aaron
Etsuko Shihomi	...	Esmeralida
Peggy Lee Brennan	...	Meia
Tetsuro Tamba	...	Noguchi
Hiroyuki Sanada	...	Shiro
Mikio Narita	...	Rockseia XLL
Makoto Satô	...	Urocco
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eisei Amamoto	...	Mother Dark (in drag)
Seizo Fukumoto
Noboru Mitani	...	Kamesasa
Masazumi Okabe	...	Jackie
Junkichi Orimoto	...	Kido
Charles Scawthorn	...	1st guard, at Headquarters entrance
Isamu Shimizu	...	Beba, the robot
Harumi Sone	...	Lazare

Also Known As:

Message from Space (International: English title)
Message from Space: Galactic Wars
Return to Jelucia (USA) (cable TV title)

Runtime:

USA:105 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Sound Mix:

Super Space Sound

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Kyoto, Japan

Company:

Toei Company

Trivia:

Portions of this film were spliced into "Astron Belt", the first laserdisc-based arcade game.

Movie Connections:

Version of Satomi hakken-den (1983)

Okay, few people could do justice in reviewing this film

Okay, few people could do justice in reviewing this film. It's a horrible film. It's badly made. The story is full of cliches. The acting is bad, and most of the special effects, barring some neat explosions, are pitiful. But the movie is not something that you should avoid -- rather, the worst features of this blatant Star Wars rip-off are the reasons you should see it! It's HILARIOUS!

This movie is the kind of film that the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crowd would have a field day with. The dialog in the movie is so idiotic at times, and so blatantly ripped off of star wars at others, that plenty of Star Wars jokes will be in order during the viewing of this film.

Imagine Vic Morrow in a thick, fluffy fur coat, getting drunk in a bar with his little Robot sidekick, then raising his glass to discover a glowing walnut in it, and exclaiming "I've been selected by the Gods!" Then there's a electric-samurai-sword fight near the end where the dialog is almost verbatum what it was between Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. Even if you're not a big fan of MST3K, you gotta at least admire the explosions in this film. All the explosions are well done, including a mock atomic mushroom cloud that's quite spectacular.

Yes, it's a bad film -- but it's such a bad film that it's good!